American actor
Married to Broadway actress Maria Karnilova for over 50 years until her death in 2001.
Popular Broadway actor/comedian, a rarity in that his personal reviews were always good even when the shows themselves were flops (Richard Rodgers musical version of "I Remember Mama," "An Evening with Richard Nixon and..."). He ultimately won a Tony award for Best Featured (i.e., supporting) Actor in a Musical as the foppish dress designer "Madame Lucy" in "Irene" in 1973.
Won Broadways 1973 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor for a revival of "Irene." He was also nominated in 1987 in the equivalent category of Best Actor for "Me and My Girl."
Despite his many appearances in Broadway musicals, undoubtedly Irvings most famous role today is that of the voice of the "Heat Miser" in the classic Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated Christmas special "The Year Without A Santa Claus" and its sequel "A Miser Brothers Christmas".
His parents, Rebecca (Zezaac) and Abraham Shelasky, were Russian Jewish immigrants.
Performed on Broadway in Irene - for which he won a Tony Award and starred opposite Debbie Reynolds (who also died 12/28/2016). (Coincidentally, that production also featured a 15-year-old Carrie Fisher, who also died 12/27/2016).
Irving performed a solo cabaret show in 2008 and that year received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
